“The "snake handling"
pastor of a small Pentecostal church in Kentucky died after being bitten by a
rattlesnake during a weekend church service.

Jamie Coots, the pastor of the
Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name in Middlesboro, Ky., was handling a
rattlesnake during a service when he was bitten on his right hand Saturday
night. But when the ambulance arrived at 8:30 p.m., the EMS team found that
Coots had gone home, according to a statement from the Middlesboro Police Department.

Middlesboro Police Chief Jeff
Sharpe told ABC News that, according to people at the church, Coots verbally
refused treatment at the church. He said Coots was unconscious when he got to
his house. When the ambulance crew arrived at Coots' home, his wife Linda Coots
signed a form declining medical treatment, police said.

Emergency personnel left about
9:10 p.m. that night. When they returned about an hour later to check on Coots,
police said he was dead from a venomous snake bite.”